Japan has the first coffee shop with laser cutter

In Japan a new sort of coffee shop is generating a little buzz among designers. The coffee shop named Fab café is an idea of Digital media production company Loftwork to collaborate with a network of designers. The word ‘fab’ means fabulous or fabrication but might also refer to the famous Fablab, a place where you have access to tools for digital fabrication.

The new caffeine hang out will house a state of the art laser cutter, which, for a fee, everyone can use. All you need to bring is an adobe illustrator vector file, which you plug in to the cutter that does the work in paper, felt, acrylic, wood and other materials.

I consider Fab cafe as another great example of a smart collaboration but even more an example of the rise of in-store production. Hopefully this will also stimulate parties like Ponoko or Fab lab to start their own (off-line) retail adventure. For these companies joining forces with a place where a lot of creatives are hanging out can be a smart and easy move to connect with them.